Criminal Minds is back for its eighth season next month, and along with having a new team member, Alex Blake, who has a long-distance relationship, some of the other members of the team will also be dealing with romance. There’s also some news out about an unsub who isn’t just going to go away after one episode.

CMSeason 8 Spoilers

TV Guide talked to executive producer Erica Messer about what’s coming up in season 8, and Alex isn’t going to be the only one in a long-distance relationship. Messer explains that “he’s with Doctors Without Borders, so this has always been their life.” So it doesn’t sound like this is going to end up being a relationship that ends because of the job, especially since Alex has “been in the Bureau since she was 24.” That’s good news, especially since the series has already shown what the job can do to a relationship. There’s no need to repeat that. Hotch is also going to be in long-distance relationship because Bellamy Young is only back for a couple of episodes “to explain her future absence.” However, they are still going to be together, so that means there could be more smiles from Hotch even if Beth isn’t around. That man deserves that after all.

Besides Reid’s upcoming relationship, which should be entertaining to see play out, Messer has revealed that Garcia and Kevin will “probably reunite by the end of the season.” Things didn’t end well for them last season, but by the end of the finale, they were at least able to be in the same place and Garcia didn’t run away like she did at the sci-fi convention earlier on. There is good news for fans of JJ and Will’s relationship (and you had to love that wedding): “home life is going to be kosher after Season 7’s life-threatening finale.” They deserve that happiness after what happened, and it’s hard not to hope to see a return from AJ Cook’s son as Henry.

So what about what the show is really about? Criminal Minds season 8 is going to “feature a season-long unsub,” and he’s a creepy one. According to Messer, “The unsub in the premiere sews mouths shut, but by the end of the premiere, he’s no more. And a couple of episodes later, the team finds out that back in Texas, where we solved that other case, a victim just showed up with her mouth sewn shut. So then you find out that this guy is replicating crimes we’ve solved. We’re calling him The Replicator, unofficially. We’ll probably see him five or six times [throughout the season].” Any fan of the show remembers how creepy the recurring The Reaper was; will The Replicator be worse? C. Thomas Howell portrayed The Reaper/Foyet perfectly. Will they get someone just as good to play The Replicator? For a character like that, they need to.

Finally, there’s the matter of Prentiss. They didn’t kill her off (thankfully), so Paget Brewster could always return, but it’s not something that’s likely to happen anytime soon. However, Messer did say “we’ll mention her as often as possible.” She left on good terms, and the premiere is going to show Morgan and Garcia returning from visiting her while they were on “temporary assignment in London.” It sounds like they’re going to be handling that in the right way.